very quick chicken breasts with peri peri and lemon
Part of my ‘regular’ eating regime is to include lean protein with at least two of my meals. So I eat a lot of skinless chicken breast.
It can get quite boring.
I find this way of cooking chicken breasts brilliant, because it takes 5 minutes and is packed with flavour. None of the issues around over cooking the outside in order to cook the breast through with the result of a very dry and tough piece of meat.
I cooked four breasts so that I could have leftovers to add to my salad or sandwich for lunch the next day.
Cut into the rough side of each chicken breast about 2/3 of the way through, and open up the flesh to butterfly. Place the breast on a board or work surface and press down with the palm of your hand to flatten them out. You Could also bash them between cling film sheets, but it really is not necessary as the meat is soft and gives way quite easily
Place your butterflied and flattened breast into a shallow dish and squeeze over the juice of half a lemon. Coat them fairly generously with about half a cup of peri peri sauce. I love the Ruys Babalas chilli which I buy in Joburg, but any peri peri chilli sauce would work well. Woolworths peri peri and Nando’s work well too.
Baste the breasts in the lemon juice and sauce for a while. If you remember to do this a few hours before, even better.
Heat a splash of olive oil in a frying pan until hot, and then using tongs fry the breast until golden brown on either side. This takes about 2 – 3 minutes per side.
Remove from the pan and set aside. Squeeze over the juice from the other half of the lemon and sprinkle generously with salt.
If you are looking for a nearly instant and healthy meal, this is a good solution.
If you want more sauce add more peri peri, or I drizzled over some of my chilli oil which now gets used very frequently in my kitchen. It just adds a little extra zing.
Delicious, juicy and full of all the taste of Portugal that I was craving for my supper.
Simple easy and downright delicious!! Lovely stuff!
This look SO delicious Sam. We also eat A LOT of chicken so I’m always on the look-out for new ways to prepare it! 🙂
Sounds awesome – a quick and easy way to jazz up boring ol’ chicken.
Mmm – that looks like it kicks Nando’s butt!
x
Love how succulent these look! And the plate is gorgeous.
Thanks Ish, its my new plate from the Milnerton market. We should go sometime.
Thanks Lori, just so quick and tasty. had the leftovers for lunch with more sauce splashed on, in a roll with some salad. mmmmmm
Thanks Robyn. takes about as long to make as it does to drive to Nando’s and get a takeaway, and about half the price. I cant believe I havent been flattening all my chicken and cooking like this. A little tip picked up from a friend. Also divine with just olive oil and lemon juice. But I like the peri peri kick.
Thanks Alida, I wish I had started flattening chicken breasts earlier in life. Takes the pain out of cooking chicken in a hurry – literally 5 minutes. I love the Ruys chilli sauce you get up in Gauteng (havent seen it here), but am planning on experimenting with a few other ‘local’ chilli / prego sauces.
Thanks Nina, just 5 mins 🙂
Always on the lookout for new chicken ideas – this looks superb. Love how succulent your breasts look. (Wow that sounded a lot more dodgy than I intended – you know what I mean though.)
Ha ha Marisa -as a foodie, I have a one tracked mind 😉
I gave this a bash last night and it is wonderful how the chili sauce flavours the chicken. Left overs tonight! I think I used too much olive oil and perhaps the pan was too hot because I was cleaning up the splatters for longer than it took to cook! I’ll perfect it next time! Thanks for the idea Sam.
Excellent Greg, so glad you made this. Yes it sounds like a bit too much oil or sauce which caused the splattering. I just coat the chicken and then add more on afterwards.
Mmmm this recipe sounds very yum, we love Nando’s in our house, so this will go down well. Thank you.
Thanks Val – its just such a quick and easy meal.
Looks good. Must try it today!
These made brilliant chicken burgers last night!
Excellent Albert, so glad to hear. 🙂